Nutcracker Suite
The Nutcracker Suite is the second segment of the 1940 Disney film Fantasia. Synopsis The Nutcracker Suite, a selection of pieces from Tchaikovsky's now-classic Christmas ballet The Nutcracker, is a personified depiction of the changing of the seasons; first from summer to autumn, and then from autumn to winter. As Master of Ceremonies Deems Taylor points out, there is no "nutcracker on the screen; there's nothing left of him but the title." Unlike the original ballet, this version has no plot. It features a variety of dances, just as in the ballet, but done so by animated fairies, fish, flowers, mushrooms, and leaves; no actual nutcracker is ever seen in it. Many elements are rendered carefully and painstakingly using techniques such as dry brush and airbrush. The musical segments are as follows: As dawn breaks over a meadow, during the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", tiny fairies sprinkle dew drops on every flower and stem. A cluster of tiny mushrooms, dressed in long robes and coolie hats resembling Chinese (plus a little one always out-of-step), perform the "Chinese Dance". Multicolored blossoms shaped like ballerinas perform the "Dance of the Reed Flutes". A school of underwater goldfish performs a graceful "Arabian Dance". High-kicking thistles, dressed like Cossacks, and orchids, dressed like lovely Russian peasant girls, join together for the wild "Russian Dance" (Trepak). In the final musical segment, "Waltz of the Flowers", autumn fairies color everything they touch brown and gold with their wands. Then the frost fairies arrive and everything becomes part of an icy, jewel-like pattern among falling snowflakes. One quaint novelty of the full-length roadshow version of Fantasia is that during his commentary on the Nutcracker Suite, Deems Taylor observes that the complete ballet "wasn't much of a success and nobody performs it nowadays." The United States did not see a complete staging of the ballet until 1944, four years after Fantasia, and George Balanchine's 1954 staging with the New York City Ballet established the modern tradition of performing the ballet at Christmas. Credits *Musical score: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Nutcracker Suite Op. 71a **"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" **"Chinese Dance" **"Dance of the Reed Flutes" **"Arabian Dance" **"Russian Dance" (Trepak) **"Waltz of the Flowers" *Directed by Samuel Armstrong *Story development: Sylvia Moberly-Holland, Norman Wright, Albert Heath, Bianca Majolie, and Graham Heid *Character designs: John Walbridge, Elmer Plummer, and Ethel Kulsar *Art direction: Robert Cormack, Al Zinnen, Curtiss D. Perkins, Arthur Byram, and Bruce Bushman *Background painting: John Hench, Ethel Kulsar, and Nino Carbe *Animation: Art Babbitt, Les Clark, Don Lusk, Cy Young, and Robert Stokes *Choreography: Jules Engel Trivia *Some clips from the Waltz of the Flowers part of the segment were used as background for the song, Joy to the World from Disney's Very Merry Christmas Songs, a special holiday edition of Disney's Sing-Along Songs on VHS and DVD. The entire part was also featured in "Jiminy Cricket's Christmas". Gallery Nutcracker WDL500.jpg Nutcracker Storyteller500.jpg Video The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71A, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71A, Chinese Dance The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71A, Dance Of The Reed Flutes The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71A, Arabian Dance The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71A, Russian Dance The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71A, Waltz Of The Flowers Category:Fantasia segments Category:Disney Tsum Tsum Category:Non-Disney songs Category:Little Einsteins Category:Kingdom Hearts songs Category:The Nutcracker and the Four Realms Category:Christmas songs